Preparing for Conversations with Dave Ulrich
Knowledge and Human Resource Management

Human Resource Value Proposition: Preface

Editor's note: Excerpts from the draft of a new book, Human Resource Value Proposition by Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank. For the full preface, download the PDF.

We like human resources (HR). We like HR practices that deal with people, performance, information, and organization because they create an infrastructure that affects employees, customers, line managers, and investors. When HR practices align with strategies, goals are met and sustained. We like the HR function because it allows functional experts to help sustain organization results. When the HR function operates well, it becomes an exemplar of how to bring specialist expertise to business requirements. We like HR professionals because, for the most part, they value people and they work to create both competitive and compassionate organizations. When HR professionals develop competencies and play appropriate roles, they become partners and players in the business. We like the intellectual challenges of figuring out how HR practices, functions, and professionals add even greater value.

For the last twenty years of our professional lives, we, along with others, have been committed observers of and champions for the HR profession. We have turned our commitment into action through education and practice. We have had the privilege of training thousands of HR professionals at the University of Michigan and elsewhere. We have worked in hundreds of companies to assess and improve their HR effectiveness.

In the early 2000's, Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood's Why The Bottom Line Isn't discussed intangibles and suggested that HR investments build organization capabilities. These organization capabilities generate market value through the intangibles they create. Capabilities that lead to intangible market value include: talent, speed, collaboration, accountability, shared mindset, learning, and leadership. HR professionals make intangibles tangible by building organization capabilities. Organization capabilities are the deliverables of HR.

For over fifteen years, we have conducted on-going research on HR competencies, most recently synthesizing that work in Competencies for the New HR (by Wayne Brockbank and Dave Ulrich) published by Society for Human Resource Management, the University of Michigan, and Global Consulting Alliance. In this work, we focus on how HR professionals can identify and master crucial competencies for business success. As a result of fifteen years of research, we have accumulated the largest data set in the world on HR competencies that differentiate business performance and define what HR professionals should know and do.

More recently, HR Business Process Outsourcing by Ed Lawler, Dave Ulrich, Jac Fitz-enz, and James Madden suggests ways to deliver the administrative work of HR through outsourcing. We argue that the field of HR is being split in half. Much of the traditional, administrative, and transactional work of HR, e.g., payroll, benefits administration, staffing policies, training logistics, and so forth must be carried out more efficiently. Most large firms have either built service centers and invested in HR technology, or outsourced these transactions. What is left after transactional HR has been automated, centralized, eliminated or outsourced forms the heart of this book, Human Resource Value Proposition.

As we have attempted to apply the above ideas, we continue to be confronted by future focused questions such as:

• Why does HR matter so much more today?
• How do I convince my line manager to pay attention to HR issues?
• What specific things can HR do to connect with customers, investors, employees, and line managers?
• What are emerging HR practices? While deliverables (outcomes, intangibles, or capabilities) are important, what are the investments in HR practices that make these outcomes happen?
• How do we create a powerful line of sight between business strategy and HR?
• How do we organize our HR function? In particular, after we outsource transaction work, how do we organize to deliver more strategic HR work?
• How does HR help to build, not just measure, intangible value creation?
• What are the evolving and emerging roles for HR professionals?
• What knowledge, skill, and ability should HR professionals demonstrate that impact business performance?
• How can we develop more capable HR professionals and department to do the above?

These are the questions that remain after re-engineering, automating, or outsourcing HR. These are the questions we address in this book.

We continue to believe that HR professionals should focus more on deliverables than on doables or activities. We believe that key deliverables are organization capabilities and intangibles that define the organization's identity and personality and that deliver high performance to all stakeholders. We believe that HR leaders can align practices to more effectively execute business strategy. We believe that HR professionals who demonstrate the right competencies and play the right roles will be more effective than those who do not. And, we believe that with creative thought and discipline these beliefs will become actions that deliver value. In sum, we believe that this a great time to be an HR professional.

In this book, we expand on these beliefs and provide empirical and best-practice evidence that show how to turn these ideas into action.

Download the PDF of the full introduction and chapter titles.

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